PS1/2 OpenPS2Loader HDD games freeze every 15-20 seconds then goes back to normal

[theravingrabbid]

I'm somewhat new to PS2 softmodding so I'll just keep this simple.

I recently got the SATA hard drive adapter for my PS2 for use for my games on the hard drive. Although while playing them, it comes with some freezes here and there, like every 15-20 seconds. Games like PaRappa 2 kinda suffers from this because when it freezes, the lyrics goes out of sync with the music. I use a Seagate 949GB hard drive from my old broken laptop.

So is there anyway to stop the games from freezing/lagging for a bit? Do I have to change some settings in OPL? Any help would be much appreciated.

EDIT 3/29/2021: Turns out the official Sony branded network adapter with SATA works MUCH better than the GameStar one. The lags on PaRappa and other games I have are no longer noticable. Safe to say that this issue I have is now solved.

 

[rs1n]

Check the health of your hard disk. HDD Scan is free; check the SMART attributes of the drive. When you plug it into your computer, ignore all messages about the drive needing to be formatted. The symptoms definitely seem like hardware issues with either the drive or the "network" adapter.

If the drive is healthy, then you probably just have a bad adapter. (I'm guessing it's one of those Gamestar adapters, correct?)

 

[theravingrabbid]

Check the health of your hard disk. HDD Scan is free; check the SMART attributes of the drive. When you plug it into your computer, ignore all messages about the drive needing to be formatted. The symptoms definitely seem like hardware issues with either the drive or the "network" adapter.

If the drive is healthy, then you probably just have a bad adapter. (I'm guessing it's one of those Gamestar adapters, correct?)

Correct, it's one of the GameStar adapters from China that has a sata port on it. And I never checked the health of my hard drive so I'll be sure to do that in a bit.

 

[theravingrabbid]

So far so good, it could be that my adapter is just bad since it IS from china.

 

[rs1n]

I suppose it can’t hurt to open the adapter up and see if anything needs to be re-seated to form proper connections. Also try tinkering with the compatibility modes to see if any of them help. (I find that the newer the drive the more likely the need to “slow” them down via the DMA settings.)

 

[TunaKetchup]

It could be the adapter

I've read that people have had problems with the gamestar ones(glitches, freezes, etc) although I personally have not.

 

[theravingrabbid]

Is there any adapters that work a little better than the gamestar one?

 

[rs1n]

The official Sony adapter with a SATA upgrade kit works well. I got mine from maxdiypower.com